The firefighter is expected to recover from his injuries
A screenshot from News Channel 8 footage of a fire engine surrounded by flagging parked a few feet from a CSX train, in Polk County, Florida, February 2, 2021.
Tuesday morning, February 2, a volunteer firefighter in Florida was hit by a train while was suppressing a vegetation fire near 1491 14th St. NW in Fort Meade. The injury occurred on a fire that burned three to four acres along the railroad tracks, mostly in grass.
Location of firefighter hit by train, News Channel 8 image
According to WFLA News Channel 8 the fire had been contained and structures were saved, but as a CSX train approached, “The firefighter saw that the door was open on one of their trucks, so he ran over to shut the door of the truck, but the train arrived at about the same time he made it to the truck.”
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office reported the Fort Meade firefighter was transported to a hospital where he was treated for a broken leg.
The cause of the fire was not released, but from my experience it is common in some areas for trains to ignite fires adjacent to their tracks, started by hot carbon particles from the exhaust or brake failure.
Prescribed fire at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, April 29, 2020. Photo by Paul Horsted.
Intuitively we might think that fuel reduction treatments and prescribed fire would lead to more resistance to drought and attacks by beetles. While that is sometimes the case, it turns out that following the extreme 2012-2016 drought in California, prescribed burning increased beetle infestation rates and increased mortality of red fir and sugar pine in an area studied by scientists.
Researchers studied 10,000 mapped and tagged trees in a mixed‐conifer forest following mechanical thinning and/or prescribed burning treatments in 2001 through the extreme drought in California. The work was conducted in the Teakettle Experimental Forest (36°58′ N, 119°2′ W) located in the High Sierra Ranger District of Sierra National Forest, in California’s Sierra Nevada. Elevation of the forest ranges from 1,880 to 2,485 m.
While prescribed burning is an important tool for increasing resistance to wildfire their results suggest prescribed burning does not necessarily also instill drought resistance.
Below is an excerpt from a paper titled, “Do forest fuel reduction treatments confer resistance to beetle infestation and drought mortality?” It was written by: Z. L. Steel, M. J. Goodwin, M. D. Meyer, G. A. Fricker, H. S. J. Zald, M. D. Hurteau, M. P. North, and published by the Ecological Society of America January 22, 2021.
Management challenges
Density reduction treatments that rely on mechanical thinning alone had neutral to positive effects on conifer survival during the 2012–2016 drought (Figs. 7, 8). The overstory treatment that removed medium to large trees (e.g., ≥25 cm) was most beneficial to residual individuals, suggesting such a strategy could be used broadly to increase drought resilience for some species (i.e., Jeffrey pine and white fir). While removal of smaller trees (e.g., ≤25 cm) may be less effective at mitigating drought mortality, treatments focused on ladder and surface fuels may still be preferred when considering non‐drought objectives such as reducing fire hazard or maintaining wildlife habitat (Stephens et al. 2012).
Prescribed burning appears less effective than mechanical thinning at reducing drought mortality and in some cases can lead to higher beetle infestation and mortality rates (Fig. 8). This is most striking in the case of large sugar pines which died at much higher rates in prescribed burn plots during the drought. The negative effect of burning on tree survival is somewhat surprising given that the fire regime under which these forests developed was characterized by frequent (i.e., 11–17 yr) low‐ to moderate‐severity fire (North et al. 2005, Safford and Stevens 2017), and that the prescribed burn occurred approximately a decade prior to the drought.
Indirect effect of forest treatment on drought mortality. Treatment abbreviations are UU for Unburned/Understory Thin; UO for Unburned/Overstory Thin; BN for Burned/No Thin; BU for Burned/Understory Thin; and BO for Burned/Overstory Thin. Value distributions represent change in probability of mortality relative to controls for two tree sizes. The scale of the x‐axis varies among species. (From the research)
Further, van Mantgem et al. (2016) observed decreased tree mortality associated with prescribed fire elsewhere in the Sierra Nevada following the initial two years of California’s drought, and Meyer et al. (2019) found no difference in mortality between paired burned and unburned plots in red fir forests during the middle and late periods of the drought. The forests Meyer et al. (2019) sampled were at higher elevations than Teakettle where soil moisture is substantially higher and temperatures lower.
The results presented here could be unique to the Teakettle Experimental Forest, but we suspect they are more likely attributable to the historic severity of the 2012–2016 drought. When beetle populations are less than epidemic such as at higher elevations, during moderate droughts, or early in severe droughts, previous fire and its associated reduced density may be neutral or ameliorating for conifer mortality.
Our sugar pine results may indicate a tipping point beyond which the combination of extreme water stress from drought, bark beetle outbreaks, and fire result in increasingly high rates of tree mortality (Nesmith et al. 2015), and subsequent forest structural changes outside the natural range of variation (Young et al. 2020).
These results suggest cautious low‐intensity and small (i.e., stand) scale prescribed burning, as it is often applied by managers, may only benefit forests under short duration drought stress while contributing to higher mortality in red fir and sugar pine during prolonged and exceptional droughts.
High mortality rates of large sugar pines may be related to prescribed fires consumption of deep litter and duff layers that have accumulated around the base of pine species under fire suppression, suggesting removal of litter and duff through raking could protect individual trees. Nesmith et al. (2010) found raking increased survival and reduced bark beetle activity when fire intensity was moderate (<80% crown scorch) and when fuel depth was ≥30 cm. Thus, protecting individual trees of high ecological value may be possible prior to prescribed burns. However, such targeted measures are infeasible at broad scales in fire‐prone landscapes of the Sierra Nevada. In the long run, retaining sugar pine in these pyrogenic landscapes may hinge on fostering sunny, bare mineral soil conditions favorable for sugar pine regeneration and in the future reducing surface fuels on a regular basis.
Marginal effects on beetle infestation. (C) host species basal area within a 10‐m radius, and (D) whether a tree experienced a prescribed burn treatment. Beetle and tree species abbreviations are jpb for Jeffrey pine beetle; rtb for red turpentine beetle; mpb for mountain pine beetle; eng for fir engraver; pije for Pinus jeffreyi (Jeffrey pine); pila for Pinus lambertiana (sugar pine); abco for Abies concolor (white fir); and abma for Abies magnifica (red fir). For C, thick lines show mean effect estimates with labeled solid lines represent relationships where the 90% credible interval does not include zero. To illustrate the spread of credible effects, 30 model posterior draws are also drawn as faint lines. Note the y‐axis scale differs for (D). (From the research)
Treatment effects on large diameter trees are often the focus of management restoration efforts since these structures have been reduced from past logging, take a long time to develop, and are associated with important ecosystem services (e.g., sensitive species habitat and carbon storage). Treatments using only thinning consistently reduced mortality of large (>75 cm DBH) trees across species, albeit with different effect sizes. For incense‐cedar and especially white fir, there was a greater reduction in mortality for small versus large trees, which are often the target of fuel reduction treatments. Prescribed fire has mixed effects, reducing mortality of large Jeffrey pine and slightly reducing small white fir mortality when combined with thinning, but increasing mortality of large red fir, incense‐cedar, and significantly increasing large sugar pine mortality.
While prescribed burning is an important tool for increasing resistance to wildfire (Stephens and Moghaddas 2005, Prichard et al. 2010), our results suggest such fuel treatments do not necessarily also instill drought resistance. There is general benefit to all species in reducing density, but the means (i.e., mechanical vs. prescribed fire) of treatment matters, suggesting caution in widespread use of fire in drought‐prone areas where managers want to retain large sugar pines and red fir.
The blaze has burned over 25,000 acres (10,000 ha)
Updated at 3:13 a.m. AWT, February 4, 2021
Map shows heat detected by a satellite at the bushfire northeast of Perth, Western Australia at 2 a.m. local time Feb. 4, 2021. The lighter-colored icons are the most recent.
A satellite that detected heat on the Perth Hills bushfire in Western Australia at 2 a.m. local time on February 4, showed that most of the growth on Wednesday was on the north side of the fire, southeast of Bullsbrook. (See the map above.)
Emergency WA reported at 1:48 a.m. February 4 that the fire has now burned 10,237 hectares (25,296 acres). The number of reported homes burned has not changed, and is still 71.
The weather forecast for Muchea predicts cooler temperatures for Thursday, 28°C in the afternoon and wind out of the east-southeast at 28km/h with a relative humidity of 22 percent. Friday will be about the same.
Updated at 10:16 a.m. Western Australia time, Feb. 3, 2021
Authorities have updated the number of homes burned in the bushfire northeast of Perth in Western Australia to 71. (scroll down to see a map of the fire)
Officials are advising residents who are advised to evacuate to not worry about the COVID lockdown.
The revised weather forecast for Muchea is now predicting wind gusts up to 70 kph in some areas, which will make the work of the firefighters even more difficult. For Wednesday, sunny in the afternoon. Winds E/SE 15 to 20 km/h tending S/SE in the morning then increasing to 25 to 40 km/h in the middle of the day. Gusts to 70km/h possible about the hills and foothills during the evening. Daytime maximum temperatures in the low to mid 30s. The relative humidity will be 30 percent in the afternoon.
Emergency WA reported the fire has now burned 9,464 hectares (23,886 acres). The cause of the fire, which is being managed by the Department of Fire and Emergency Services, has not been released.
Originally published at 5:17 a.m. Western Australia time, Feb. 3, 2021
Map shows heat detected by a satellite at the bushfire northeast of Perth, Western Australia at 3:10 a.m. local time February 3, 2021.
A bushfire has destroyed 59 homes northeast of Perth, Western Australia. The blaze was about 14 Km north of Midland and approximately 13 Km south of Muchea at 3:10 a.m. Feb. 3 local time (see the map above).
Emergency WA reports that it has burned 9,189 hectares (22,700 acres) since it was reported at 12:02 p.m. February 1, 2021.
An emergency warning is in place for parts of the shires of Mundaring, Chittering and Northam, and the City of Swan, forcing hundreds of residents to evacuate. Suburbs affected include The Vines, Ellenbrook, Gidgegannup, Upper Swan, Baskerville, Aveley, Henley Brook, Bullsbrook, Brigadoon and Wooroloo.
A Watch and Act warning is in place for nearby areas including Hovea, Stoneville, Wundowie, Mount Helena, Jane Brook, Herne Hill, Muchea and Parkerville.
The weather forecast for Wednesday for the Muchea area calls for 35°C in the afternoon and wind out of the south-southwest at 17km/h with a relative humidity of 30 percent. Thursday the wind will be stronger and out of the east-southeast at 24 to 31 km/h with 22 percent relative humidity. These conditions could increase the danger to areas north of the fire.
I have seen many videos shot while driving through fire areas, but none that showed worse visibility caused by smoke as seen in the video below.
Firefighters dodged flames while driving in Western Australia, as fire officials issued an emergency warning following a bushfire that broke out east of Perth.
Since December a large air tanker has been stationed in Western Australia on a three-month deployment at Busselton for the 2020/2021 bushfire season — Tanker 132, a C-130 operated by Coulson. To help with the fire it is being joined by New South Wales Bomber 210, which is a 737, and a lead plane.
Following a request from Western Australia the #NSWRFS is deploying the Marie Bashir (Large Air Tanker) and lead plane to assist firefighters battling blazes near Perth and across the state over the next week. pic.twitter.com/jGKXu04Hyx
Fire danger expected to be above normal in Western Texas in February
Wildfire potential February, 2021. NIFC.
The National Significant Wildland Fire Potential Outlook issued February 1 by the Predictive Services section at the National Interagency Fire Center pointed out that widespread and in some areas heavy precipitation reduced fire potential across Southern California and the Southwest in the later part of January. They predict wildfire potential will begin increasing to higher than normal levels in the Southwest in March and by May will affect large portions of Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico.
The data from NIFC shown here represents the cumulative forecasts of the ten Geographic Area Predictive Services Units and the National Predictive Services Unit.
Below:
An excerpt from the NIFC narrative report for the next several months;
More of NIFC’s monthly graphical outlooks;
NOAA’s three-month temperature and precipitation forecasts;
Drought Monitor;
Keetch-Byram Drought Index.
“Below normal precipitation was observed across much of the United States (US), especially the contiguous US (CONUS), in January. Above normal temperatures were also prevalent with the strongest anomalies on the northern Plains and across the Great Lakes into the Northeast. Portions of the Plains extending into the Missouri Valley and Ozarks observed above normal precipitation. Precipitation during the last week of January helped ease precipitation and snowpack deficits across the West, but most areas remain below normal for this time of year.
“La Niña will continue to significantly affect the weather and climate patterns into spring. Drought conditions are expected to continue for much of California, the Great Basin, and the Southwest into spring with drying expected to increase across portions of the Plains and Southeast. However, drought improvement and possibly removal is forecast for portions of northwest California through Oregon.
“Climate outlooks suggest normal to below normal significant fire potential is likely for large portions of the Southeast, Ohio Valley, Appalachians, and Mid-Atlantic into spring. However, an early and active start to the fire season is expected for the southern High Plains during late winter and continuing into the spring.
“Significant fire potential is forecast to be above normal during the spring across the Southwest and southern Plains due to background drought and forecast drier and warmer than normal conditions. Lower elevations in the Southwest are favored to have above normal significant fire potential beginning in March and April. Oklahoma, eastern New Mexico, and most of Texas are forecast to have an active spring fire season before green-up in March and April and possibly beginning as early as February. Above normal significant fire potential is also likely to extend north into southern Kansas and southeast Colorado in March and April. By May, much of the Southwest and Florida and portions of the southern Great Basin are likely to have above normal significant fire potential.”
Wildfire potential March-May, 2021Temperature outlook for March through May, 2021; made January 21, 2021.Precipitation outlook for March through May, 2021; made January 21, 2021.Drought Monitor, January 26, 2021. It likely does not take into account the large amounts of precipitation that hit the west coast beginning around January 26, 2021.KBDI January 31, 2021.
EVERETT, Wash. — Jan. 29, 2021 — The United States Forest Service is requesting the public’s assistance in identifying suspects involved with the theft of wildland firefighting equipment from the Koma Kulshan Guard Station near Concrete Washington; the home base of the Baker River Hotshot Crew.
During the weekend of December 18th – 21st, 2020, multiple suspects broke into the Forest Service’s Hotshot Compound stealing an estimated $45,000 worth of vital firefighting equipment.
The Forest Service is looking for help in the return of the stolen equipment or the apprehension of those involved. It was a difficult year, a very hot and hard fire season, and the Baker River Hotshot Crew needs your help.
This is an ongoing investigation. Anyone with any information is asked to contact the U.S. Forest Service at SM.FS.mbs_pao@usda.gov, the Mt. Baker Ranger District at (360) 856-5700, or any local law enforcement agency.
Former firefighter becomes a combat medic, following in the footsteps of her grandfather
Tessa Morris was a ski patrol director when she enlisted to be a combat medic in the U.S. Army. Her grandfather, Robert Harris, was a combat medic for the Army’s 10th Mountain Division during World War II. (Courtesy photo)
This article published by the U.S. Army tells the story of Tessa Morris who served on Wenatchee helitack and Entiat Hotshots. She was the first woman to serve as Ski Patrol director at Mission Ridge Ski Area near Wenatchee, Washington and became Director of the Ski Patrol at age 23.
By Jason Schaap
USAREC Public Affairs
FORT KNOX, Ky., Jan. 29, 2021 —Foxholes, chocolate and cigarettes. That is what Tessa Morris remembers about her first Army conversation with her grandpa.
She was in the sixth grade, and her homework assignment was to interview a veteran. Her mother’s father, Robert Harris, was a medic with the 10th Mountain Division during World War II, nearly a half-century before Morris was born.
Harris told his granddaughter about being a ski trooper in Italy. All the training he did before he got there, and how the foxhole rations of his generation included a bar of chocolate and a pack of cigarettes. What he didn’t mention was his Purple Heart, or getting shot.
“He didn’t really talk about what happened to him over there,” Morris said in mid-January, less than a week before she left for Army basic training.
Harris went to war on skis when it was still a “wild idea,” and he was in the Italian campaign that made the 10th Mountain Division famous for getting the job done. He played a big part in why his generation came to be known as the greatest.
There’s so much more to why he was the greatest to Morris.
Ski Boot Baby
Harris was the grandfather that returned from the war and only wanted something better for his children and his children’s children.
Harris was the one who, with his wife, Madeline, while in their 70s, took Morris on a hike near a waterfall when she was 4. It’s her earliest memory of him. She remembers asking for a treat. She remembers “he always had these pretty funny remarks” for such an occasion.
“Oh,” her grandfather said to her, “here’s a nut, for a little nut.”
Harris was there when Morris was 6 and the family went skiing in Idaho. There was a brand new ski lift there named Stella.
“I just wanted to go on Stella all day,” Morris said. “So that is what my grandfather and I did.”
Harris died in 2009. He won’t be there in April when Morris graduates basic combat training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and begins following in his bootsteps as a combat medic. Harris’ 97-year-old widow, however, knows her granddaughter will be caring for Soldiers and carrying her late husband’s torch.
Morris also told Madeline that she will start her medic tour at Fort Polk, Louisiana, home of a 10th Mountain Division combat team.
“She actually lit up pretty big,” Morris said, the mention of 10th Mountain reversing Madeline’s visible gloom at the thoughts of swamps and alligators in Louisiana.
Morris will report to Polk with an advanced promotion to the rank of specialist because she enlisted under a program that rewards Future Soldiers for bringing needed skills into the Army. She qualified for it because of the emergency care credentials she carried as a ski patrol director when she enlisted.
In fact, she said the Army Civilian Acquired Skills Program is a big reason she chose the Army over the other services, because “it’s pretty cool” that she could be guaranteed to be a medic like her grandfather. “Even better if (it) gets (her) on with the 10th Mountain Division,” she added with careful optimism.
Morris’ ski patrol adventure started in high school. She was 16 when she heard her sister’s friend talk about volunteering to patrol on weekends just outside of Wenatchee, Washington.
“I want to do that,” she emphatically said to herself.
Morris wasn’t just born to ski. She practically arrived in the world with ski boots fastened and ready. Skiing is so in the Morris blood that her mother and older sister wanted in when she readied for patrol training after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
“Well, if you do that, I want to do it,” Morris’ sister insisted to her and her mother.
So the seed that was planted on an Italian mountain range, and nurtured on Stella’s mechanical arms in Idaho, began to bloom as Morris was finishing high school. She continued patrolling after graduation.
Fire in the Snow
By 21, Morris was carrying dynamite up a mountain and blowing up the snow, a little-known patroller responsibility referred to as “avalanche mitigation.”
